110 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
order that he might enjoy so favourite an amusement, 
he erected, just without the walls of Futtepoor Sicri, 
a lofty minar composed of grey granite dug from the 
neighbouring quarries. From the top of this pillar 
it was his custom to behold the contentions of various 
wild animals snared for this purpose in the neigh- 
bouring forests, and especially of elephants, of which 
he kept a large number trained, and fed with exciting 
drugs in order to render them more fierce, and con- 
sequently more terrific, in the combat. 
The town of Futtepoor Sicri stands about nineteen 
miles south of Agra, where the imperial court was 
held in the time of Akbar ; and to the former town 
the Emperor used frequently to retire from the press- 
ing cares of state, to enjoy those sturdy recreations so 
consonant to the character of a warlike prince in a 
country where wild animals abounded in such multi- 
tudes that their destruction became a matter of social 
necessity, and every social necessity must involve a 
political. 
The minar represented in the engraving is even 
now in a state of good preservation. Part of the 
parapet of the gallery under the cupola has given way ; 
but in every other respect it was perfectly entire at 
the time the drawing, from which the engraving is 
copied, was made. The gallery and dome by which 
the column is surmounted are in the purest taste of 
the period, being light and elegant, but extremely sub- 
stantial, and forming a striking capital to the pil- 
lar that rises from a base of almost Doric plainness. 
By way, however, of appropriate ornament, the minar 
was adorned from the base to the pavilion, with which 
